I came into commercial aviation to be a FI, which is what I do now, full time.
I have never been interested in airline flying as I also felt I would be bored.
But the other day I was asked to do a freebie favour for a couple of friends of the boss, to give them a lift in one of our Senecas and to take a new CPL/IR student along for the ride.
The timetable was tight as the destination airport closed in 1 hour and the boss turned up late to let me in to the office to get my gear and plan the flight, which meant 75% power at low level to avoid the higher, stronger headwinds and negotiation with ATC for a direct route rather than the prescribed VFR routes in this neck of the woods and subtle positioning for a straight in approach after a max range call to the destination airport so they would know we are coming in and keep the doors open that few minutes longer, should we be delayed beyond 'close o'clock'. In a nutshell, all thinking on my feet to get the job done. The student became a very occupied "FO", assisting with the 'workload' which she loved as it gave the flight a sense of purpose for her. We made it with 2 minutes to spare and on the return leg the student got to fly back for the experience. Results all around!
Okay, so this was not airline flying by any stretch of the imagination but it gave me (and her) a small taste of what corporate flying is all about and there is a lot more to Commercial Air Transport than big shiny jets full of p***ed up
, whining
, puking
Brits on their way home from Costa del Pistalot.
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